Residential and commercial construction often requires the installation of cables, pipes, conduit, wires, or other construction material beneath a floor or other surface, such as during the installation of air conditioning and heating equipment. Such installation typically involves the suspending of the cable, conduit or pipe from a floor joist, beam, or other structural flame member, utilizing segments of metal or plastic strap material that are nailed or otherwise secured to the joist This practice is awkward, labor-intensive, and time-consuming, especially in the cramped and dark confines of a crawl space beneath a floor.
Some hardware devices have been proposed to address this problem. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,098 to Siegfried, et al., discloses a spring-action suspensory device for attachment to overhead beams. The generally U-shaped spring-action device attaches to overhead beams for the purpose of forming an anchor to which suspensory rods may be attached for suspending ceilings, pipes, ducts or other structures.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,741 to Logsdon describes a pipe hanger constructed so as to utilize a central body portion and a separate strap Both ends of the body portion includes a vertically extending slot. A ratchet structure is provided in one of the body portion slots. The strap is provided with an enlarged head at one of its ends so that it can be dropped through the other of the slots until it is held against further movement by the head engaging the body portion. Ratchet teeth are located on the other end of the strap so that the strap can be wrapped around a pipe and the pipe seemed to the body portion by inserting the other end of the strap in the slot having the ratchet structure in the body portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,882 to Hodges, et al. teaches a pipe hanger for suspending a pipe from a support structure at a variety of angles and includes a stem and a flexible hook attached to the stem The stem has at least one groove suitable for accepting a staple for hanging the pipe hanger from the support structure. The grooves may be polygonal, allowing the pipe hanger to be suspended at a variety of angles. The hook has a curved portion to accept a pipe in a snap-fit position. The stem may be shortened to a suitable length by severing the stem at any one of the grooves
U.S. Pat. No. 6,152,412 to Basickes et al., discloses a pipe hanger which has a tubular section which is split axially so that the tubular section can be opened and fit around a pipe. Two partially overlapping tabs extend from the tubular section. When the tabs are urged together, holes in the tabs become aligned, and permit a single fastener to secure the tabs together, and to affix the hanger to a support structure. The hanger therefore requires only a single fastener. The fastener is preferably supplied with the hanger, and is held by friction in one of the holes in the tabs, or in a tubular chamber extending from one of the tabs. The shape of the tubular section facilitates manual closing of the tubular section around the pipe. The hanger is very easy to install, even when the hanger is located in an inconvenient position.
United States Patent Application 20080203247 by Hill describes a device for securing a conduit to a structural object. The device includes a clip having a longitudinally extending clip body with a conduit receiving cavity extending in the longitudinally direction and about a cavity axis with a longitudinally extending conduit receiving slot. The device further including a panel strap securable to the structural object.
The foregoing patents and patent application reflect the current state of the art of which the present inventor is aware. Reference to, and discussion of, these patents and patent application is intended to aid in discharging applicant's acknowledged duty of candor in disclosing information that may be relevant to the examination of claims to the present invention. However, it is respectfully submitted that none of the above-indicated patents or patent application disclose, teach, suggest, show, or otherwise render obvious, either singly or when considered in combination, the invention described and claimed herein.